Israel Raises Fence On Egypt Border, Completes Upgrades

The Israeli government announced that it has finished raising the height of the electronic border fence between Israel and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula by 10 feet in an effort to further curb illegal infiltrations.

Israel originally completed the 150-mile border fence, which runs from the Gaza Strip border to Eilat, in 2014. The fence was aimed at curbing illegal migration, drug and weapons smuggling, and infiltration by terrorists. The Sinai Peninsula has been wrought with violence in recent years as the Egyptian government, with Israel’s support, has battled an Islamic State-affiliated terror group in the region.

While the fence had significantly slashed the number of illegal migrants from Africa into Israel— from hundreds every month to only 213 in all of 2015—the number of continued successful infiltrations prompted the government to raise the barrier from 15 feet to 25 feet along a roughly 10-mile stretch of the border.

According to Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the increased height of the fence, coupled with additional detection devices, “significantly curbed the flow of illegal infiltration into Israel, with only 11 successful attempts to cross the fence throughout 2016.” JNS.ORG